Fire Risk Management Services<\/a>, a Sacramento-based statewide \u201cjoint powers authority,\u201d decided June 23 not to renew its existing medical benefits plan for 2026, after the plan expires on Dec. 31.<\/p>\nThis leaves member agencies with a short window to secure affordable insurance so that their employees and retirees may choose their new benefits during open enrollment, which begins Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge is finding the best option that maintains as close to the same level of benefits our employees currently have, at the most reasonable price point,\u201d said Sonoma Valley Fire District Chief Steve Akre, who also has served as FRMS board president since 2022.<\/p>\n
Within the Sonoma County region, Sonoma Valley, Gold Ridge, Schell-Vista, Sonoma County, Northern Sonoma County and Cloverdale fire protection districts will all be affected by this development.<\/p>\n
In turn, thousands of local people \u2013 not just the roughly 1,000 actual policyholders but also their family members \u2013 who are covered under these plans could be forced to change plans and pay more for their insurance premiums as a result.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not as if employees are going to be without health care,\u201d said Gold Ridge Fire Protection Chief Shepley Schroth-Cary. \u201cWe will have a resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
That resolution may vary from district to district, Schroth-Cary added.<\/p>\n
The purpose of the joint powers authority was to ease or minimize the costs of insurance paid by each agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to the fact that health care is going up, they are no longer going to be supporting health benefits, so we have to find new health benefits,\u201d said Stacie McCambridge, a Schell-Vista Fire Protection District administrator who is one of the district\u2019s managers of employee health coverage.<\/p>\n
While board members and chiefs alike expected some creep in insurance costs, the JPA was surprised to learn its insurance premiums would increase 60% in 2026.<\/p>\n
Rather than struggle to pay the exponentially higher insurance premium, which Akre described as \u201cnot sustainable\u201d and \u201cnot reasonable,\u201d the FRMS board opted to end the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t for a lack of engagement or interest or awareness, this was something that we just couldn\u2019t anticipate,\u201d said Akre.<\/p>\n
He speculated the increase has something to do with people going to the doctor again after delaying or skipping visits during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a couple of years of low utilization,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re now feeling \u2013 over the last year to two \u2013 a rebound where people are now feeling more comfortable and we\u2019re seeing really high utilization rates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Press Democrat Staff Writer Amie Windsor contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
You can reach Staff Writer Isabel Beer at 707-933-2734 or isabel.beer@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @IsabelSongBeer<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six Sonoma County fire agencies are among about 40 fire districts statewide that are now searching for new…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":146691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[210,1141,1142,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-146690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115030488913428118","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}